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30 November 2011
Continental Drift vs. continental drift
I got this e-mail this morning from a geology colleague. I’ve despecified it and made it gender-neutral: I have a silly question about word usage and I’d love to hear your opinion. Today I overhead [a biologist colleague] talking about continental drift, and I cringed. S/he used it in context with continents moving apart and how that can alter gene populations. I shudder whenever I hear my students use conti …
Callan Bentley is an assistant professor of geology at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia. He is particularly interested in structural geology and the evolution of the Appalachian mountain belt. Callan draws cartoons and writes for EARTH magazine. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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